Mimic

On the night of the full moon, when majority of the cats of the Clan are not present, the earsplitting yowl of a she-cat cut through the still air. The cats in camp tried their best to reassure the queen, but she died giving birth. However, her two daughters survived - barely.

When the father returned to camp, the brother of the queen shared the grave news. He was devastated, but visited his kits, naming one of them Snowkit and the other Frostkit, after their mother Frostcloud. One may wonder why they were such similar names. Well, the kits were identical in appearance, except for Snowkit's slightly larger ears and Frostkit's tad bit longer fur and tail.

I was Snowkit, and this is the story of my life.

Even before we had opened our eyes, Duskfall, our father, always paid more attention to Frostkit, whether accidentally or on purpose. The queen who milked us, Ivyflower, also made mistakes on who was who very often. She was the one that told us that we were identical from head to toe with our pure white pelts, not noticing the smallest differences.

I remember vaguely waking up and mewling, but Duskfall thought that it was Frostkit who mewled and tried to comfort her while I batted at his tail that I didn't see. He had murmured, "Snowkit, your sister is in distress." I would think, No, I'm the one in distress! and cry out for him without words. It would be then that he realized I was the troubled one.

Then came the day that we opened our eyes, I opening mine first. I was in awe of the size of the nursery that had felt so much smaller and cozier with eyes closed. I wondered how much larger camp would be, and the territories. I turned my head to the slender tortoiseshell she-cat next to me and pawed her flank. Ivyflower blinked and murmured, "Frostkit?"

I shook my head to say that I was the other sister. Her honey gold eyes softened. "Your eyes are a lovely dark green," she complimented, and I couldn't help but puff my chest with pride. Okay, sure, the color of your eyes isn't something that you can help, but I hoped that this was at last when I could be differentiated from Frostkit.

Unfortunately, after taking a small tour of camp with the older kits, Frostkit exited the nursery, and guess what color her eyes were? Dark green.

Eventually, Frostkit and I reached six moons of age, and you know what happens when you are six moons old. Duskfall tried to groom us to be perfectly sleek, but the sun had already climbed to its peak and Duststar had already climbed up the Highrock.

I'm going to skip the fancy-worded ceremony, and get to the end. I had been apprenticed to Goldenclaw, a light golden-brown tom who had only been named warrior two moons ago, and Frostpaw was apprenticed to Willowcloud, the dark gray tabby she-cat that had also mentored our mother.

Throughout our apprenticeship, our mentors would mistaken one for the other as well. Willowcloud poked her head into the apprentices' den and looked straight at me, saying, "Frostpaw, we are on a border patrol at Sunning Rocks."

"I'm Snowpaw!" I protested truthfully, but she snorted in amusement.

"Very funny, but don't pretend to be your sister to get away with it," she sighed. "Come on!"

I prodded at Frostpaw, mewing, "Wake up, Frostpaw!"

The saddest part was when she murmured, "You know that you are Frostpaw, right?"

I twitched an ear. "No, you're Frostpaw!"

And then I was dragged along with Willowcloud, who wasn't even my mentor! And Frostpaw became such a lazy flea-bag. She would say that I was her, using me to go on her training sessions, and she would just lay in the apprentices' den all day or moon over the aggressive Lionpaw. I get that it's quite clever, but she's using her own sister for her own lazy habits! And whenever I caught, let's say, a large rabbit one-pawed, then all the credit could go to her and she could bask in the glory.

The day of our first assessment, I caught four pieces of prey - a mouse, a starling, a thrush, and a hare (exceeding the told amount: 2) - whereas Frostpaw caught a measly shrew. She glanced at my catches and mewed, "Good job, Frostpaw."

I gritted my teeth, frustrated, but Goldenclaw told Frostpaw, "Snowpaw, you're on apprentice duty to take out the elders' ticks."

Guess what happened? I had to do the elders' ticks. My apprenticeship gave me a deep annoyance with my sister, who just slept, ate, gossiped, mooned, and repeated that process. I was the one who woke, went on patrols, practiced, did chores, ate, sleep, repeat. Which one is actually what you were supposed to do as an apprentice? I wonder.

Frostpaw began to be the great hunter, fighter, stalker, climber, whereas I became known as the dumb hunter, fighter, stalker, climber. I tried to talk to the deputy before, but he believed these lies that Frostpaw had woven.

On our warrior assessment, I beat every other apprentice in combat; caught three birds, a squirrel, and a rabbit; climbed up all the way up the Great Sycamore; and exceeded all expectations. Frostpaw called me by her name during the whole assessment when cheering me on. Exactly how you support your littermates.

Frostpaw, meanwhile, was already beaten by Squirrelpaw, the smallest and youngest apprentice; caught a scrawny shrew and an elderly pigeon; climbed up hardly two tail-lengths up the tree; and in short, fell short of all expectations. I didn't cheer for her at all, and I think I have every reason to not.

And the worst part was that Duststar gave Frostpaw the name Frostfoot and held me back, thinking that her actions were mine. At the next assessment, I did just as well as I had for her, and they just assumed that I improved greatly. I was given the name Snowflight, apparently for soaring to the top.

Frostfoot was desperate to earn her fake reputation back (which righteously was mine), even though she already had Lionstrike as her mate and most of the Clan still wrapped around her. So when there was a fox on the territory and she was called on the patrol to drive it out, guess who was forced on it? Me, although I didn't mind fighting and killing it. But all the credit went to her.

Now, one moon, she had given birth to a litter of three, hardly surviving. I was honestly jealous of any littermates that weren't complete look-alikes like me and Frostpaw, but I wasn't jealous of her mate. He was the most arrogant and aggressive cat that ever existed.

While she was in the nursery, there was one night that I was taking a normal stroll through the woods, enjoying the night. However a cat crept behind me, and brushed pelts with me. I turned my head to see Lionstrike, my sister's mate.

"Lionstrike, I'm Snowflight," I tried to say, but he didn't believe me. Ugh, that stupid tom thought that he was always the right one.

"Very funny, very funny," he had purred.

I tried to escape, because as much as I resented Frostfoot, I didn't want to bear kits for her mate. Unfortunately... ah, I hate myself for trying to say this. Let's say that one moon later, I was expecting kits and no cat knew who the father could be. This was how Lionstrike finally realized that he confronted the wrong cat that night, and Frostfoot was pestering me about who the father was.

"I haven't seen you with any toms, Snowflight, but who is it?" she rambled.

Rolling my eyes, I mewed, "A queen has the right to not name the father. But trust me, I didn't break the warrior code." If only stealing your sister's reputation was against the warrior code...

The pain of giving birth is simply horrible. I can't even describe it properly, and you probably don't need to hear about it. It was just a sunny day in greenleaf, and then I felt the sharp agony. The medicine cats made it, fortunately, and I gave birth to two kits. One of them was a pale gray she-cat, taking after Duskfall, and the tom was golden-brown, just like Lionstrike.

Frostfoot stared at the tom in shock, and stared at me. "How?" she whispered. The one thing I could respect about her was that she was never angry, just upset or sad to get close to it.

"He thought I was you," I muttered bitterly in reply. "Just like how Willowcloud keeps dragging me on your patrols and how every cat thinks what I did was all you." I took a deep breath, believing that I should finally tell my sister how I felt. "Frostfoot, please, if you want to earn a good reputation in ThunderClan, try to do things on your own. Then you've earned your place. Don't do it by pretending what someone else did was you instead."

Her dark green eyes were filled with, for the first time, regret. "I'm sorry, Snowflight, for everything. I just... I didn't want to do anything helpful, and I never was good at anything. I saw how well you did, and - "

"I had double training," I interrupted. "Of course I'm going to do well. You had little practice at all, therefore leading to your poor performance."

Frostfoot nodded slowly. "Even as kits, though, you proved to be strong and ready. I was weak and cowardly. You would have always been the better warrior, and I was just too jealous to think right." Her ears flattened against her head, and I could truly tell that she was sorry.

"I... I forgive you," I murmured. Seeing that she was sincere in apology truly meant that I could finally do so.

She blinked, and a small smile tugged at her muzzle. "Thank you, Snowflight," she mewed.

Despite whatever happened in our past, the two of us became great friends for the rest of our lives into our time as elders. She passed from greencough first, and I myself later died in old age. One of my kits grew to be leader, and one of hers was the deputy. Although the Clan may still identify her as great, none of us will ever be the mimic ever again.

Challenge Name: Mimic

Its Creator: I c e

Word Count: 1789 words

Description: A cat is a perfect copy of their sibling(s). Do they like this, or not? If they do, would they do things they wouldn't if they looked different? If not, would they take drastic measures to stand out?

Start/Finish Date: 8/23/18 - 8/24/18